Wednesday 23 March 2011

I’ll never forget…


             …the first time I watched Jurassic Park.  For some reason I did not see it in theaters, it was actually on television at a good old family gathering.  I tuned in when T-Rex was chasing the Jeep YJ down a muddy path.  The heroes were in peril, but I could honestly care less for Jeff Goldblum and Laura Dern.  I was mesmerized by the legendary dinosaur tearing up the screen.  I couldn’t believe my eyes…  I was looking at a real dinosaur.

I ended up buying my very own copy of Jurassic Park and watched it so many times.  I had the movie memorized.  But what was so capturing, each and every time, was how they brought those dinosaurs back from extinction.  I remember telling my parents, “I wanna learn how they did that”.  Being eleven at the time, it would take me a long while before I’d grasp what CGI was.
As a young boy, I loved drawing and being creative.  I watched Mr. Dress Up and Bob Ross, but nothing could compare to what I experienced on that TV at that family get together.

My two young brothers were definitely more inclined to sports. When my parents gave me the choice to play hockey or to take drawing lessons, my reply was instant… “I wanna learn to draw”.  I figured it would bring me one step closer to bringing an extinct creature back to life.

In 1995 Toy Story came about and I was stunned, once again.  I couldn’t wrap my brain around the fact that these toys weren’t drawn.  They were cartoony, but yet they didn’t have the drawn lines around their bodies!  I read up everything I could to learn about how it was done… something about wireframes, meshes and 3d geometry.  I still needed to see it for myself. 

Next came Twister and I, once again, found myself trying to understand how they had done it.  I was so obsessed that I even based my high school science fair project around tornadoes and cyclones. 

After high school I chose to study in Illustration & Design at Dawson College.   It was a great program and I learned a lot about drawing and architecture… but I wasn’t happy.  I wanted to see my drawings move.  I wanted to give them life.

I decided to leave Dawson College and look elsewhere for another program, something that would interest me more, something that would bring me closer to my dream.  A year later I took a one year intensive 3d Animation program at Inter-Dec College and the rest is history.  I loved it.  I put all my time and effort into my animation projects.  I came out of it ten pounds lighter, ten shades paler, and with a chance to animate in a feature film called Pinocchio 3000 as a junior animator.

Animating is my passion.  I don’t call it work because I enjoy waking up in the morning.  I feel liberated every time I create an animation, from a simple walk cycle to a complicated acting scene.  For me, it never gets old.  I’ve been doing it for ten years now, and never once did I consider doing something else.  I have other passions in life, but for me nothing gives me more joy that to animate.

Welcome to my Blog!  I hope to offer some insight and advice to the up and coming animators out there.  And to the veteran animators, maybe you can teach me a thing or two ;)

Johnny